GG 103 Aloha and Welcome to

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GG 103 Geology of Hawaiian Islands
GG 103 Aloha and Welcome to Geology of the
Hawaiian Islands Nasir Gazdar, PhD, MPH 1. Course
Website //www2.hawaii.edu/nasir 2.
Announcements, Lecture notes and Study Guide
Files, Extra credit, Geology Events
at //myuhportal.hawaii.edu at GG 103 Course
Site 3. Hawaii Atlas, Plate Tectonics, Geology
Text, CDs, DVDs at The Library Reserve GG 103 4.
Email for any help. Mahalo for excellence.
//www2.hawaii.edu/nasir
nasir_at_hawaii.edu
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GG 103 Exams and Grading

• Grade
• A 900
• B 800
• C 700
• D 600

• 1st term exam 150 points
• Midterm 150 points
• 3rd term 150 points
• Final exam 400 points
• Presentation 150 points
• Total 1000 points
• Extra credit to be announced in the class - may
  be emailed

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• Geology is vital in human civilization
• Geology in Todays World
• Geology - The scientific study of the Earth
• Physical Geology is the study of Earths
  materials, changes of the surface and interior of
  the Earth, and the forces that cause those
  changes
• Practical Aspects of Geology
• Natural resources
• Geological hazards
• Environmental protection
• Sea level Rise, Climate Change, Global Warming

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Geology and Other Sciences

• Chemistry
• Mineralogy
• Petrology
• Geochemistry

• Physics
• Geophysics
• Seismology

• Biology
• Paleontology
• Paleoecology

Geology

• Historical Geology
• Geomorphology
• Oceanography
• Structural Geology
• Volcanology

• Economic Geology
• Hydrology
• Engineering Geology
• Petroleum Geology

• Astronomy
• Planetary Geology
• Helioseismology

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Natural Resources All manufactured objects depend
on Earths resources Localized concentrations of
useful geological resources are mined or
extracted If it cant be grown, it must be
mined Most resources are limited in quantity and
non-renewable
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Earth Science The science of GeologyEarth
System Science

• Geology is the science that pursues an
  understanding of planet Earth
• Physical Geology - examines the materials
  composing Earth and seeks to understand the
  Internal Processes that operate beneath, and
  External Processes upon its surface.
• Historical Geology - seeks an understanding of
  the origin of Earth and its development through
  time

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What Do Geologists Do?

• Seek to understand all processes that operate on
  and inside the Earth and on the Hawaiian Islands
• Study
• Our planets long history and origin of Hawaiian
  islands and their place on the earth in the ocean
• Landforms volcanoes, reefs, water bodies (ocean,
  rivers and groundwater), mountains, valleys,
  glaciers, dunes
• Hazardous processes such as earthquakes, volcanic
  eruptions, tsunamis, floods, and landslides
• Rocks, minerals, water, geothermal resources of
  the Hawaiian Islands

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Geology Involves Study of

• Earth Materials (rocks, minerals, soils)
• formation, effects on health, as resource or
  waste
• Natural Hazards
• Volcanoes and volcanic eruptions, earthquakes,
  tsunamis, floods, landslides, rockfalls
• minimize loss of life
• Natural Resources Volcanoes, Reefs, Beaches,
  Geothermal energy
• Hydrologic Processes of surface/ground water
• Water resources, pollution
• Geologic Process
• Atmospheric, hydrologic, and lithospheric

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Where in the World is Hawaii!
North America
Asia
Europe
South America
Australia
Africa
Antarctica
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Where in the World is Hawaii!
Volcanic Islands in the Sea
Hawaii
Pacific Ocean
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Pacific Ocean
Mahukona
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North America
Asia
Atlantic Ocean
Hawaii
Pacific Ocean
South America
Indian Ocean
Australia
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Tsunami
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Volcano
Subduction crack on the Pacific Oceanic crust
Earthquakes
Oceanic crust is forced below the fracture
because oceanic crust is denser than the one
composing the fracture. Magma is created at the
subduction wedge
Magma Chamber Hotspot
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• Origin of Planet Earth, Sun and Solar System

The Nebular Hypothesis claims that 5 billion
years ago, for reasons unknown, a huge nebular
cloud began to contract under its own
gravitational influence. As it contracted it also
had some rotational motion. The more it
contracted the faster the cloud rotated, causing
the nebular cloud to take on a disk shape. As the
cloud collapsed, the temperature of the central
mass continued to increase and most of the
material was gravitationally pulled toward the
center, producing the Sun. However, because of
the rotational motion, some dust and gases
remained orbiting the Sun, forming planets.
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Nebular Hypothesis Explains Origin of Suns Solar
System 8 Planets, Moons, Comets, Asteroids Rocky
Planets Mercury Venus Earth Mars Gaseous
Planets Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Dwarf
Planet Pluto
As these fragments began to condense and collide,
they joined together into larger objects which
eventually became the planets which continued to
orbit the Sun
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• Earth formed as a planet in the Suns Solar
  system from a nebula 4,600,000,000 years ago,
  4.6 billion years, 4,600 million years
• Life on Earth began 3,800,000,000 years
• Geology Science of processes related to
• Composition, structure, history and life of Earth
• Processes on the earth, landforms and islands
• Geology of Hawaiian Islands
• Studies entire spectrum of Hawaiian Islands
  physical environment, Birth and Life of the Isles
  
• It is geology applied to
• Islands origin, volcanic formation and life
  stages
• Awareness of unique geologic environment
• Understand the geologic processes on the islands

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Origin and evolution of Earth

• Origin of planet Earth 4,600,000,000 years before
  present
• Nebular hypothesis Sun and Solar System
• While this theory incorporates more basic
  physics, there are several unsolved problems. For
  example, a majority of the angular momentum in
  the Solar System is held by the outer planets.
  For comparison, 99 of the Solar System's mass is
  in the Sun, but 99 of its angular momentum is in
  the planets. Another flaw is the mechanism from
  which the disk turns into individual planets
• Layered structure developed by chemical
  segregation early in the formation of Earth

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Earth is Unique

• No other planet in the solar system currently has
  the right chemical and physical mix needed to
  support life
• No conclusive evidence of life existing elsewhere
  in the universe has yet been discovered as far as
  we know

LIFE
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A view of Earth Planetary System

• Earth is a planet that is rocky and
  self-contained Earth System and Spheres
• Earths spheres
• Hydrosphere water, oceans, lakes, rivers
• Atmosphere - air
• Biosphere life and environment, ecosystem
• Lithosphere - Solid Earth
• Pedosphere soil
• Cryosphere ice sheets, Antarctica, Greenland
• Anthrosphere Human built environment

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Our Planets Five Spheres or Subsystems

• The Atmosphere
• Nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, and
  water vapor
• The Hydrosphere
• Oceans, lakes, streams, underground water, snow,
  and ice
• The Biosphere Ecosphere, Sphere of Life
• All of Earths organisms, as well as any organic
  matter not yet decomposed, Anthrosphere is Human
  Living Environment
• The Geosphere Crust, Lithosphere, Mantle and
  Core
• The solid Earth from core to surface crust-
• Crust composed principally of rock, minerals,
  sediments, ores and soils
• Soils are in Pedosphere

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The science of Geology

• Some historical notes about geology
• The nature of Earth has been a focus of study for
  centuries
• Catastrophism
• Uniformitarianism and the birth of modern
  geology

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Uniformitarianism The Rock Cycle
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Uniformitarianism

• Continuity of Cause and Effect
• Apply Cause and Effect to Future - Prediction
• Apply Cause and Effect to Present - Technology
• Apply Cause and Effect to Past -
  Uniformitarianism

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Uniformitarianism does not mean

• Catastrophes never occur
• Physical Conditions on Earth never Change
• Earth has always been the same
• Physical processes always occur at the same rate
  or intensity
• Laws of Physics have always been the same

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Uniformitarianism does mean

• Using our knowledge of physical laws, we can
  test
• Whether catastrophes have occurred
• Whether physical conditions on earth have
  changed, and if so, how (climate change, ice
  ages, warm periods, high or low sea level, etc.)
• Whether physical laws themselves have changed in
  time, or elsewhere in the universe.

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Geologic time

• Geologists are now able to assign fairly accurate
  dates to events in Earth history
• Relative dating and the geologic time scale
• Relative dating means that dates are placed in
  their proper sequence or order without knowing
  their age in years

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Geologic time

• The magnitude of geologic time
• Involves vast times millions or billions of
  years
• An appreciation for the magnitude of geologic
  time is important because many processes are very
  gradual

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The nature of scientific inquiry

• Science assumes the natural world is consistent
  and predictable
• Goal of science is to discover patterns in nature
  and use the knowledge to make predictions
• Scientists collect facts through observation
  and measurements

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The nature of scientific inquiry

• How or why things happen are explained using a
• Hypothesis a tentative (or untested)
  explanation
• Theory a well-tested and widely accepted view
  that the scientific community agrees best
  explains certain observable facts

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The nature of scientific inquiry

• Scientific methods
• Scientific method involves gathering facts
  through observations and formulation of
  hypotheses and theories
• There is no fixed path that scientists follow
  that leads to scientific knowledge

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Earth as a system

• Earth is a dynamic planet with many interacting
  parts or spheres
• Parts of the Earth system are linked
• Characterized by processes that
• Vary on spatial scales from fractions of
  millimeter to thousands of kilometers
• Have time scales that range from milliseconds to
  billions of years

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Earth as a system

• The Earth system is powered by the Sun that
  drives external processes in the
• Atmosphere
• Hydrosphere
• At Earths surface

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Earth as a system

• The Earth system is also powered by the Earths
  interior, Internal Processes.
• Heat remaining from the formation and heat that
  is continuously generated by radioactive decay
  powers the internal processes that produce
  volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountains

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The rock cycle part of the Earth system

• The loop that involves the processes by which one
  rock changes to another
• Illustrates the various processes and paths as
  earth materials change both on the surface and
  inside the Earth

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The face of Earth

• Earths surface has two principal divisions
• Continents
• Ocean basins
• Significant difference between the continents and
  ocean basins is their relative levels

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The face of Earth

• Continents
• Most prominent features are linear mountain belts
  
• Shields
• Ocean basins
• Ocean ridge system the most prominent
  topographic feature on Earth
• Deep-ocean trenches

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Early evolution of Earth

• Origin of planet Earth
• Most researchers believe that Earth and the other
  planets formed at essentially the same time from
  the same primordial material as the Sun
• Nebular hypothesis
• Layered structure developed by chemical
  segregation early in the formation of Earth

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Earths internal structure

• Earths internal layers can be defined by
• Chemical composition
• Physical properties
• Layers defined by composition
• Lithosphere, Crust
• Mantle
• Core

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Structure of the EarthThe Earth is made up of
three main layers The core is at the center of
the Earth The outer core is a mobile semi-molten
layer around the inner core The mantle is a
solid, rigid layer around the outer core the top
of mantle gets internal heat. The outer-shell of
the Earth is called the LITHOSPHERE - crust. it's
the part we're on now
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Dynamic Earth Plate Tectonics

• Theory of Plate Tectonics
• Involves understanding the workings of our
  dynamic planet
• Began in the early part of the twentieth century
  with a proposal called continental drift the
  idea that continents moved about the face of the
  planet
• Seafloor Spreading

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Dynamic Earth

• The theory of plate tectonics
• Theory, called plate tectonics, has now emerged
  that provides geologists with the first
  comprehensive model of Earths internal workings
• Plate boundaries
• All major interactions among individual plates
  occurs along their boundaries

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8 Major Tectonic Plates of the Lithosphere
Ring of Fire
Ring of Fire
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Dynamic Earth

• Plate boundaries
• Divergent boundary two plates move apart,
  resulting in upwelling of material from the
  mantle to create new seafloor
• Convergent boundary two plates move together
  with subduction of oceanic plates or collision of
  two continental plates

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Dynamic Earth

• Plate boundaries
• Transform boundaries - located where plates grind
  past each other without either generating new
  lithosphere or consuming old lithosphere
• Changing boundaries - new plate boundaries are
  created in response to changes in the forces
  acting on the lithosphere

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